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Well, Star Wars sure isn’t waiting for San Diego Comic-Con to share its reveals. Here’s the newly revealed synopsis of Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig:
As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance — now a fledgling New Republic — presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy’s scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. But above the remote planet Akiva, an ominous show of the enemy’s strength is unfolding. Out on a lone reconnaissance mission, pilot Wedge Antilles watches Imperial Star Destroyers gather like birds of prey circling for a kill, but is taken captive before he can report back to the New Republic leaders.
Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, former Rebel fighter Norra Wexley has returned to her native world — war weary, ready to reunite with her estranged son, and eager to build a new life in some distant place. But when Norra intercepts Wedge Antilles’s urgent distress call, she realizes her time as a freedom fighter is not yet over. What she doesn’t know is just how close the enemy is—or how decisive and dangerous her new mission will be.
Determined to preserve the Empire’s power, the surviving Imperial elite are converging on Akiva for a top-secret emergency summit — to consolidate their forces and rally for a counterstrike. But they haven’t reckoned on the Norra and her newfound allies — her technical genius son, a Zabrak bounty hunter, and a reprobate Imperial defector — who are prepared to do whatever they must to end the Empire’s oppressive reign once and for all.
Meanwhile, we’re also talking about the villains of Dark Disciple today! It’s mostly about Count Dooku, whom I’ll get to in a moment.
As for General Grievous, I’ll simply say that he represents one of the small disappointments in the novel. He’s so easily dispatched in our hero’s first encounter with him that I thought to myself, “Why didn’t they just kill him?” Which of course they can’t because he dies in Revenge of the Sith. But for all the talk about how dangerous he is and how important it would be to take him out as part of ending the war, it just didn’t make sense that the book would just leave him alive, considering the way he was utterly punked.
Now, to Count Dooku. As I mentioned in the podcast, there seem to be three kinds of evil being explored in the new canon. There’s the utter brutalization being laid out by Darth Vader, ostensibly to cement his reputation as a bad guy. Then there’s the kind of evil practiced in the shadows by the Emperor. And then there’s the kind of “You brought this on yourself” take that’s almost delivered apologetically, as thousands of refugees get wiped out, that Dooku practices. Which is just so abominable. And, without spoiling too much, one character is captured and held prisoner by Dooku, who subjects said prisoner to long bouts of torture – either directly with Force lightning, or indirectly via torture droids.
So let’s give credit where credit is due, to Christie Golden for doing a stellar job in both adapting the material and bringing her own voice and fleshing out the characters and situations in a powerful and utterly believable story.
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Darth Vader
Today’s question: What trio rescued Princess Leia from the Death Star’s detention block?